How do we become critical thinkers? The answer is easy--experience. This answer is important to those in the workplace who “eat their young”. It happens too often that co-workers give these newcomers a hard time, tell the boss that these new employees are not “cutting it”, and continually talk badly about these people behind their backs. Do you truly believe that these new employees do not know this? They do. If the harassments continue, most of these new employees will resign, judging themselves for months after, and hindering their next place of employment with an even lower self esteem . These people will have a less likely chance to ever become a productive employee, yet alone a critical thinker.

Instead of attacking these new employees, mentor them. Teach them what you know, (and do not forget that a lot of your knowledge came from others) and slowly give them the reins and confidence to go on their own. We all need great co-workers, so why not create them? If we can help to mold our young to be more like us why wouldn't we?(since we all think that we are great, right?) Our work would be more enjoyable, productive, less stressful, and more peaceful. Remember, that after we retire, these new comers will be taking over. Wouldn't you want a critical thinker at the helm? I would!

Give these people your knowledge and resources. Let them observe you and others on the job, ask questions, and when they start on their own, be there to help and support them.

Critical Thinkers are confident. They have been through many situations and know how to react to them. They read, gather knowledge, and ask the appropriate questions to get the job done. They can make sound decisions without the approval of others when needed. People trust their decisions. These people are constantly learning, and if they are truly smart, they teach others. These are the people you want on your team. Critical thinkers are not critical to others. They enjoy sharing what they know. By doing what they love, most of these people move up the corporate ladder easily. The boss, the executives of the company , and many others recognize these people as the leaders that they are. Companies would be ignorant not to mass produce these critical thinkers.

When a critical thinker mentors a new employee , (and companies, PLEASE assign your preceptors carefully because it makes such a huge difference!) he or she is in the process of creating another critical thinker. These mentors will encourage, guide, correct, and empower the new employees because they truly care. One day, our new critical thinkers will mentor others and the cycle will begin again. What another great way to secure our future!

The Bandwagon

The bandwagon fallacy is committed whenever one argues for an idea based upon its popularity with a particular audience. The fallacy plays on a persons need to be accepted by a group. The originating principle comes from a time from past political campaigns, when candidates would ride a wagon though town accompanied by a group of musicians and people would be encouraged to show their support by getting on the wagon with the politician.

One of the contemporary examples of the business application of this fallacy is provided from recent Internet history regarding the decision to employ websites to enhance brick-and-mortar businesses. While there were examples of traditional companies utilizing the Internet to increase exposure and sales revenues, many companies rushed into the decision without performing a cost-benefit analyses or some other form of criteria based evaluation. The persons in charge of the projects were anxious to climb aboard the bandwagon without assessing the risks and costs, as well as the perceived benefits.

The Slippery Slope

The fallacy of the Slippery slop dictates that if one event occurs, then a series of other events (most likely undesirable) will most certainly occur. In the case of allowing a group of users to browse the Internet without the use of filtering software: “If we allow the users open Internet access, then they will not only browse pornography and other objectionable material, they will also download illicit material, and productivity will come to a stand still” Just because one allows users unfettered access to the Internet does not mean they will feel compelled to surf pornography and download programs at-will. While it would be correct in assuming some users will act in this fashion, to include all users in this group would be a mistake. This says nothing of the fact that open Internet access opens a massive amount of research material and the requirement of administering a list of “approved” sites is costly and time-consuming.

Poisoning The Well

The fallacy of poisoning the well is committed whenever an assumption is made based solely on assumptions gathered from a single source. In the case a organization in one study, the company was considering outsourcing their email hosting. Reviewing the past performance of a single company they issued the following statement: “As we have tried outsourcing in the past with terrible response and performance, we will not consider pursuing this action at anytime in the future.” It is immediately evident this decision to exclude any other vendor offering this service is being influenced by the thought “if the first vendor we tried is horrid, then all vendors offering this service must be equally horrid”.

This particular situation was further compounded as the initial vendor scored high on the evaluation ranking criteria, which were the same metrics used to evaluate other potential candidates. This lengthy search and evaluation only served to reinforce the fallacy, in that if the vendor scored well, as did the original vendor, and the actual service proved to be less than spectacular, all vendors were capable of scoring well and eventually not live up to the ranking.

Avoiding The Trap

Steering clear of the traps of fallacy is done by not relying on a single source of information with which to make you decisions. Simple steps like, building valid evaluation criteria for every key project is also helpful. Most projects are unique enough to require this step. For larger groups, creating a cross-departmental team is key, ensuring all perspectives are represented in the project, from engineering to administration.

Regardless of the industry or trade, fallacies affect almost every part of our lives where people must communicate with words. From the examples given, it is easy to see that business is not immune to the bias and taint fallacies can bring to even the simplest of discussions. By their nature, fallacies can mislead projects into unwanted directions, wasting time and resources. It is vital for businesses to recognize and overcome fallacious thinking from the outset, in order to realize more profit from the precious resources available to us.